historic archive

Documents

In addition to the company catalogues and historic postcards that Lost Art keep in their archives, we also retain a number of other types of documents that can inform us whilst planning or conducting restoration projects, or forming the basis of important aspects of our consultancy services .

COMPANY PORTFOLIOS

Whilst catalogues are an obvious source of information, providing vast amounts of illustrations of both products and components, several of the main companies, such as the Lion Foundry and the MacFarlane Company also produced photographic portfolios illustrating their completed work in situ. Examples of these are shown above.

ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS

While copyright laws in the Victorian era were poorly defined and imposed, companies would submit drawings of their new products to the Registration Office in an attempt to impose some degree of control. Lost Art have a selection of such drawings. The above image is of the original design submitted by the Lion Foundry, followed by an image of the same bench, now offered by Lost Art as The Crookdale.

PUBLIC RECORDS

Although the storage of records has been somewhat patchy, there are still examples of original documentation available to researchers. The following documents show the original registration documents for a bench originally designed and produced by The Carron Company. These are followed by an image of the same bench which is currently available from Lost Art, now referred to as The Carron Mystery Bench.

ORIGINAL WORKING DRAWINGS

Accuracy in design, method and materials are important considerations when reproducing or restoring structures of historical significance. All of these can be informed by consideration of original working documents, such as annotated drawings, architects designs and blueprints. Lost Art have amassed a number of such documents, again, these are available for viewing or can be included in condition reports or specifications as part of our Consultancy services.